Federal workers are not clueless children and don’t need a multipage memo to tell them when it’s a good idea to buy bottled water for thirsty troops, nor are they hobbyists who enjoy writing such inane documents. Employees write those memos because they are documents workers can point to when a judge or a committee asks them why they did what they did.

A turnaround expert, having assessed these realities, would understand that they needed to reform the system, not the head count. They’d have gone to Congress with a package of major civil service and procurement reforms that made it easier to hire and fire workers for good cause but, more important, made it easier for those workers to do a good job. And they’d have identified a leader to implement this turnaround who can spend the years of single-minded focus it will take to build a better system, rather than giving the job to a CEO on a time-limited break from running his other companies.

Instead, Musk entered the political spotlight for a few months, started tinkering with the system before he understood how it worked, and left when the president’s attention wandered. The result was just one more failed government program.